FWIW, I don't know if it was Ozzie or the Sox, who seem to be black hole for talent lately, but since he moved on from here, he's actually been a pretty productive player. 2010-2012 his line is .280/.346/.459 while playing about 100 games per season.

Well, when he was acquired Kenny was touting him as a potential shortstop. It might be the change of scenery because it's not like he was that good before he got here.

For the most part, the starting pitching's been good lately. Not much else positive to say. The defense started out bad and Beckham's injury just compounds that. The other unfortunate thing is Tank was hitting pretty well when he went down. Walks, errors, mental lapses, and an anemic offense aren't making for too much fun.

Well, when he was acquired Kenny was touting him as a potential shortstop. It might be the change of scenery because it's not like he was that good before he got here.

I would hope people by now realize that front office personnel of all teams always project a positive vibe for the cameras and the press.

The bottom line is, though, that for whatever reason, Betemit has bounced around to 3 different teams in the last 3 years and he has played well at every stop. Didn't work out here for whatever reason, but he was clearly a talented player.

I would hope people by now realize that front office personnel of all teams always project a positive vibe for the cameras and the press.

The bottom line is, though, that for whatever reason, Betemit has bounced around to 3 different teams in the last 3 years and he has played well at every stop. Didn't work out here for whatever reason, but he was clearly a talented player.

Double's point is a good one and when you think about it the same things seems to hold true for Swisher.

Very productive with the Yankkes and off to a good start in Cleveland.

Makes you just wonder if he really wanted to play for the Sox in the first place.

Double's point is a good one and when you think about it the same things seems to hold true for Swisher.

Very productive with the Yankkes and off to a good start in Cleveland.

Makes you just wonder if he really wanted to play for the Sox in the first place.

Lip

The Sox did quite a bit to put Swisher in a more difficult place to succeed. Swisher is a 1st baseman and corner outfielder. The Sox trotted Swisher in CF for 70 games. And IIRC put him all over the lineup even leading off.

The Sox lost in the two Swisher trades, badly.

__________________DrCrawdad"In time you can turn these obsessions into careers...Hurry Down Doomsday the bugs are taking over." - Elvis Costello

Whatever voodoo magic we seem to use for pitchers has certainly had the opposite effect with our position players. Sometime ago, Coop was talking about trying to put the pitchers in the best position to succeed. You don't really see that in our position players, as Doub, Lip, Crawdad and several others have brought up. They were either playing out of position, moved all over the order or shuffled in and out of the lineup. The Sox have created this crappy environment for position players to play well below their abilities. I do not have an answer, so I'm not going to pretend like I know how to solve this.

What was the story in the offseason, did he turn down an extension, or just didn't want to negotiate quite yet?

I would love to know his reason for not taking guaranteed money when it was essentially offered to him.

I think he is a ethical man and will abide by a contract. Maybe he had and has second thoughts but will fulfill a contract. With the money Ventura made as a player this gig is not for the money. Most managers are in it for the money.

The problem is, I am not sure I have faith in the White Sox scouting department to identify talent worth getting back from those guys. Aren't a lot of the guys who thought that Wilson Betemit was the next Juan Uribe and Jeff Marquez was the next Jon Garland still around?

That's a big concern. As is the ability of the front office to negotiate and execute a trade.

The bottom line on Betemit is that we got nothing out of him, which means we got nothing for Gio except 1 year of Swisher that we weren't happy with anyway.

3 out the past 4 seasons we have had horrific starts to the season. If the past is any indication we might bounce back when it heats up only to run out of gas after the all star break.

I have no answers, only frustration.

Pluses: Solid pitching, Good young arms in the bullpen, Rios,

Negatives: Everything else.

Once again no idea what you can do about it and there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Will Danks and Beckham make that big of a difference? Probably not. Will having a great draft pick next year mean anything?